Trump’s Premeditated Plan Led to January 6th Carnage

He is attempting to obstruct the committee’s work

Statement of Common Cause President Karen Hobert Flynn 

As all of his other efforts to steal the 2020 election failed, Donald Trump summoned, instigated, and ultimately set loose a violent, racist mob on the United States Capitol on January 6th. He urged the crowd he had summoned to the Ellipse that day that he knew was heavily armed to march to the Capitol. He encouraged them to “fight like hell’ to overturn the results of the 2020 election by force knowing full well that he had lost that election. People died and scores were seriously injured in the carnage that ensued once he delivered his marching orders to the crowd that believed his lies about the election. 

We learned today that a number of Trump’s inner-circle – some of whom he had pardoned for previous crimes – were in regular contact with the armed militants who organized and led the attack on the Capitol. We heard details how Trump’s legal team that had lost dozens of court challenges to election results around the country continued to encourage Trump to refuse to concede. Witnesses detailed a six-hour meeting where those attorneys, including Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, urged Trump to order the military to seize, retain and analyze voting machines despite the fact that they had no evidence to support their claims. Ultimately White House officials prevented Trump from following through with that scheme, but they would prove unable to prevent the coming insurrection at the Capitol.  

The January 6th Committee is delivering to Americans the truth they deserve to know about that day. Even as they continue to interview witnesses, the Committee has indicated that it has evidence that the former president is witness tampering. There must be an investigation and accountability for this. Still, with each hearing we are learning that the reality of the actions of the former President and his inner circle were even more calculated, disgraceful, desperate, and criminal than we knew at the time. And with each hearing we are learning how just how dire the threat to our democracy and our country truly was on January 6. The threat persists.